Why I'm voting for Kamala Harris in 2024

 Early voting has started in Wisconsin, and I’ll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. 

I don’t hate Donald Trump. I don’t think he’s some bogeyman out to destroy democracy.* He’s a human, and a sore loser, a careless leader, and a shameless sinner. I believe that sinners can make suitable presidents, but besides my disagreements with his policy agenda, I find Trump untrustworthy. I don’t think I’d support him even if I were a Republican.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about why I think Kamala Harris is a good choice for president, even without contrasting her opponent. Harris strikes me as a savvy, moral, and strong leader. Her VP pick is charming and apparently guileless. Here are 3 reasons I support them this election: 

Harris is pro-family. 

She promises not to raise taxes on people earning less than $400,000 a year. She wants to restore the expanded child tax credit that dramatically reduced child poverty. She plans to provide $6,000 in tax relief to parents of new children. She has proposals to address the root causes of inflation at the grocery store. She has thoughtful plans for supporting renters and helping people purchase homes. I know many of my fellow Christians are concerned about abortion, but I think it’s these kinds of policies that are more suited to reducing abortion rates than simple prohibition. 

Harris is thoughtful on policy. 

The second Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Kamala Harris, I googled “Kamala Harris” to view her campaign website and start reviewing her policy proposals. To my chagrin, the campaign website didn’t exist immediately, and when it did, it was just a landing page with a request for donations. I was dismayed! Where are the policies? But, as proposals began to unfold, I started to see what was going on. Harris could have just done a copy+paste of the Biden administration’s policy agenda. She also could have thrown out the Biden agenda immediately and replaced it with something hot off the presses of a progressive think tank or a version of her policy proposals from her 2016 campaign. But instead, she took the time it takes to gather opinions, consider options, and find out what’s possible. It appears to me that she consistently resists the urge to jump to conclusions. And the resulting plans (now very detailed on kamalaharris.com) represent what some might call flip-floppery, but to me demonstrate an ability to listen, collaborate, and compromise when it’s appropriate. I think that’s why it was so easy for her to form a coalition of support from everywhere from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders to Mark Cuban and Liz Cheney. And it’s why, even though I don’t agree with every probable Harris action, I can trust that a Harris administration is one that can be worked with to reach positive policy outcomes. 

The Democratic Party better aligns with my values

This is just a laundry list of reasons I prefer the democratic candidate. 

I believe that every human being is of equal value, regardless of race, nationality, gender identity, sexuality, immigration status, or any other factor, and I see the democratic party trying to honor that more than the republican party.

I believe education should be a national priority, and that schools should be a place where free thinking flourishes. I see the democratic party more frequently working to fund and improve education nationwide and less frequently trying to censor free thinking in classrooms. 

I believe in religious freedom, and where I see republicans trying to give preference to Christianity, I see democrats supporting a more pluralistic approach to religious liberty that uses restrictions only when needed to balance the rights of one group with the rights of another. 

I believe in free trade, and I’m shocked to say this, but the democratic party is now the voice of reason on free trade while republicans grow ever more economically isolationist. 

I believe we have a sacred responsibility to care for the earth, and I believe the scientific consensus that human caused climate change is having disastrous effects on the planet. While democrats passed the largest investment in clean energy in American History (The Inflation Reduction Act), republicans seem very busy with climate denial. 

I believe that the hardest part of moving to the U.S.A. should be the travel cost. We should make it as easy as possible for immigrants to attain legal status. I’m radical on this topic, even for a democrat, but democrats are more aligned with me on this issue than republicans. Problems associated with immigration should be solved in other ways (like prosecuting international drug cartels and improving healthcare access for all U.S. residents regardless of immigration status.)

Gun violence in America is a terrible, ongoing tragedy, and I see the democrats proposing actual, reasonable solutions instead of throwing their hands up and saying there’s nothing we can do to balance the second amendment with the rights of children to stay alive. 

I believe healthcare is a human right, and so is receiving a fair wage for healthcare services. But healthcare costs in the United States limit public access to essential healthcare services while money for healthcare services too often ends up more in the pockets of industry executives and shareholders than healthcare providers. Democrats defend the right to healthcare not by suggesting that healthcare providers work for free, but by trying to make access to affordable care a reality for more people through public funding. 

*To be clear: I do think that Trump’s actions and rhetoric present a threat to the republic. I just don’t think he’s a bogeyman whose main goal is to destroy the republic.